Monday, December 03, 2007

Halak shoulld start; Lemieux should sit

Want a change to the way things have been going? How about starting a goalie that has never lost at the Bell Centre...

No not Brodeur, Jaroslav Halak.

In 7 starts at the Bell Centre (or Molson Centre if you're the editor of Yahoo), Halak has won every time out. He also has 2 shutouts on top of everything else. His stats in Montreal are sensational in fact (see here).

In other news, the Canadiens feel they need to prolong a Tuesday game by honouring the rivalry with the 81-year Red Wings. Apart from the timing being completely strange (will we do this every time a square number comes around?), the ceremony stands to be very strange. According to Habs Inside/Out:

The Red Wings are expected to be represented by legends Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Marcel Pronovost and Marcel Dionne. The Canadiens are expected to have icons Jean Béliveau and Dickie Moore taking part, with Jean-Guy Talbot, Stéphane Richer and Claude Lemieux.

Now, I may not remember the rivalries of Gordie Howe, Pronovost, Beliveau and Moore, but I'm pretty sure the Habs are stretching when they ask Richer and Claude Lemieux to come along. In Richer's heyday (that would have been his first time here), the Red Wings were an awful outfit, only making the playoffs because Yzerman was putting up 120+ seasons and the North Stars and Maple Leafs couldn't get their acts together either. Lemieux was here during that time too, and left Montreal well before Sergei Fedorov and Niklas Lidstrom arrived to turn the RWs around.

Ironically though, of the post-expansion players. Claude Lemieux would probably be classified as Red Wing rival (maybe even enemy) #1. His hit on Kris Draper at the Avalanche-Red Wings back-and-forth was the powderkeg that set that (probably more tangible) on fire.

Besides the fact his hit was dirty. And that Draper will be on the ice. I don't see many good reasons for Lemieux to be at a ceremony with guys like Howe, Beliveau, Dionne and Delvecchio. I think Lemieux should call up tomorrow morning and excuse himself from this one.

3 comments:

Oh please oh please oh please play Halak. The number of scornfull looks i got at the begining of training camp when I insisted Price should have 1 more year in the minors was almost too much to handle. Would love to see Jaro shut out the Wings...or at the very least play well for a full 60min, as opposed to the standard 55-59 that we've been seeing lately.

Admittedly, it would be a bit of a slap in the face to price at this point. But you know what, Halak got the biggest slap of all back in October. So Carey would just have to show how mature he really is and get over it.

I wouldn't be suggesting it apart from the numbers in Montreal, which I'll reiterate are simply amazing